Electrically-synchronized time-measuring instrument.



No. 884,358. P ATBNT' ED APR. 14, 1908.

B.- B-ONNIKSEN & F. A. CHANDLER. ELEGTRIGALLY SYNGHRONIZED TIM-EMEASURING INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED we. 9 -19 4.

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W l Q11 I k U X V V Z 0 PATENTED 1 3. 14, 1908. B..BONNIKSEN & F. A.CHANDLER. I ELEGTRIGALLY SYNGHRONIZED TIME MEASURING INSTRUMENT.

' APPLICATION FILED AUG. 9, 1904.

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PATENTED APR. 1 1908. B. BONNIKSEN F. A. QHANDLER. ELECTRIUALLYSYNCHRONIZED TIME MEASURING INSTRUMENT.

' APPLICATION nun we. 9, 1904.

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' NO. 884,358. PATENTED APR. 14, 1908.

. B. BDNNIKYSEN & -F. A. CHANDLER. ELEGTRIGALLY SYNO-HRONIZED TIMEMEASURING INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 9, 1904. I

THE "amus- Psrne; c

0., WASHINGTON, n. c

PATENTED APR. 14, 1908.- NDLBR.

I I B. BONNIKSEN 88 F. A. OHA ELEGTRIGALLY" SYNGHRONIZED TIMEJMEA SURINGINSTRUMENT.

APPLIUATIONTIYL'EDA G.9 1904. 8 .U ssnnmssnnm s. I

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BAHNE BONNIKSEN, OF COVENTRY, AND FREDERICK AUGUSTUS CHANDLER, OF

- LEAMINGTON, ENGLAND.

ELEGTRICALLY-SYNCHRONIZEID TIME-MEASURING INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 14, 1908.

Application filed August 9, 1904. Serial No. 220,114. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, BAHNE BONNIKSEN, a subject of the King of GreatBritain, and a resident of Coventry, Warwickshire, England, andFREDERICK AUGUSTUS CHAND- LER, a subject of the King of Great Britain,and a resident of Leamington, Warwickshire, England, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Electrically- SynchronizedTime-Measuring Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to electrically synchronized clocks and like timemeasuring instruments and consists in the combination and arrangement ofparts hereinafter described and articularized in the claims appended tot is specification.

Referring to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferredembodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 is a front elevation ofthemechanism viewed from behind the dial plate. Fig. 2 is a plan of Fig.1, Fig. 3"is a rear elevation of the apparatus, Fig. 4 is a rear sideelevation viewed from in front of the back plate. Fig. 5 is a section onthe line 55 of Fig. 2, Fig. 6 is a section on the line 66 of the samefigure, and Fig. 7 is a section on the line 77 also of Fig. 2. Fig. 8 isa plan of the parts immediately connected with the minute-hand spindleon a larger scale and Fig. 9 is an elevation of the same in section onthe line 99 of Fig. 8.

Mounted on an axle, in the present instance the minute-hand axle A ofclock-work mechanism, is a pinion A (see Fig. 2) which represents inthis embodiment the cannon pinion, and with it gears a minute wheel Bmounted on a shaft B. On this shaft B are also mounted two pinions B Bthe pinion B being in constant mesh with the 24-hour wheel 0 and thepinion B with the 12-hour wheel D. A snail C (see Figs. 2 and 6) ismounted on the axle c of the wheel C and is rotated by the said wheel,at the same time it is permitted a certain amount of movement relativelyto the wheel. To accomplish this a stud C is provided on the side of thewheel C and enters a slot C in the snail. The stud is pressed againstone end of the slot by a spring C attached to the snail. Bearing on thesnail C is a lever E which is mounted upon a shaft 6 carried by the sideplates see Fig. 2. The lever is kept in constant contact with the snailby a s ring E (see, Figs. 1 and 4). Arms E are a so mounted on the shaft6 and carry an armature E which is adapted to be attracted by anelectro-magnet F when this lever by the rotation of the snail C israised a suitable distance for the magnet to attract it. Theelectro-magnet which is in the electric circuit is supplied from anysuitable generator, conveniently the local public sup 1y.

The lever E which engages-the snail is also provided with a contactpoint E (see Fig. 4) which is adapted, when the lever is raised andcontact established with the electromagnet F, to make contact betweentwo mutually insulated blades E E (see Figs. 1, 2 and 3). These bladesare carried conveniently in the manner illustrated in Fig. 3 and are soconnected with the circuit that when the point E makes contact with thetwo blades the first half of the electric circuit is completed.

E is a curved arm or extension carried by the lever E and is providedwith teeth or projections E adapted to engage with teeth or studs G of arotary star wheel or disk G. These studs effect the rotation of thisstar wheel in a manner hereinafter described.

' The star wheel G is carried on a rotary shaft g (see Fig. 5) mountedbetween the front and back plates of themechanism, and the teeth G onthe wheel are adapted to pass at the proper moment between two radialguides H (see Figs. 1, 4, 5 and 7) on a disk H mounted on theminute-hand axle A.

As the amplitude of motion of the projection E is equal to the distancebetween two of the studs G on the wheel G, when the armature E isreleased by the breaking of the contact falls, from the magnet Fcarrying the levers E E with it, the stud E engages one or other of theteeth on the star wheel and rotates it through a portion of itsrevolution equal to the distance between two of the teeth. During thisrotation one of the teeth of the star wheel passes between the twocontracting radial guides H on the disk H and since the narrow end ofthe guide is a good working fit with the studs the passage of this studbrings the disk H, with it the axle A and hence the minute hand A fixedto the said axle to a precise angular position which corresponds withthe correct time, as determined by the standard clock in the system.

A spring CT bears a ainst the star wheel G and serves to return t isWheel to its normal position when it has been moved in thefdirection inwhich it does not act to regulate the mechanism; such a motion isimparted to the wheel when the levers E E are raised by the snailC tomake contact with the magnet F. The teeth E on the arm E are not movedout of the path of the wheel, and therefore during the rising of thelevers E E they engage with the teeth of the wheel and rotate it in abackward direction, but the wheel is not turned sufliciently far toovercome the spring G which whenever the teeth are moved out of contactwith the wheel return it to its normal position.

There is another break in the circuit which is closed by the action oflevers J J, (see Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 which are mounted upon a commonshaft 7'. The lever J has a pin J (see Figs. 2 and 7) one end of whichis adapted to bear on the periphery of a cam A carried by the minutehand wheel axle A. The other end (see Fig. 1) of the pin J bears uponthe periphery of a collar O which has a notch C and is secured to the24-hour wheel C (see Fig. 7). The cam A has two shoul ders A and Abetween which is a ortion A whose periphery is concentric wit the axisof rotation of the cam. This concentric portion on the cam rotates underthe pin J 2 and is sufficiently long to occupy about tensninutes in itstravel under the pin. The other lever J carries a pin J which normallycontacts with a sp'iing blade '(see Fig. 3) and holds it away fromanother spring contact blade K, both blades K K being located in theelectric circuit. The spring contact blade K bearing u on the pin J 3 ofthe lever J operates on bot levers J and J so that the pin J ismaintainedin contact with the collar 0 The operation of the device is asfollows The inion A through the minute wheel B and its engaging pinion Brotates the wheel C once in twenty-four hours. The snail C is carriedround with the wheel and as it rotates raises the levers E and E so thatthe armature E carried by the levers E is radually raised to the magnetF. Shortly efore the completion of this 24-hourperiod the pin J 2carried by the lever J falls over the shoulder-A on the cam A at thesame time the other end of the in enters the notch C in the collar C wich has rotated to the proper position for this action. By this movementthe in J on the arm J is moved to allow the b ade K to come'into contactwith the blade K, thus closing this second switch in the circuit. Thiscompletion of circuit energizes the magnet F which now attracts thearmature E the latter having been brought suificiently close to it to beattracted, and being held u by the magnet the levers E E, are retaine inthis osition until the circuit is broken. During t e rotation of thesnail the lever E bearing upon it acts with a braking effect so that thesnail is rotated by the wheel C, the pin in which bears against theforward end of the slot C in the snail, that is to say the opposite endof the slot to that shown in Fig. 6. During this rotation the spring'Cis in tension. When, however, the armature is attracted by the magnet Fthe lever is moved clear of the snail, and the braking effect beingreleased the snail iscarried round by the spring C sufficient far forthe shoulder of the snail to clear the said lever, that is to say intothe position shown in Fig. 6.

At the moment of synchronizing the standard clock by means of suitablemechanism opens the main switch. The breaking of the circuit releasesthe levers E E so that they fall back to their normal position, that isto say into the position shown in Fig. 1. During this movement thecurved arm E engages by one of its teeth E with one of the teeth of thestar wheel and rotates it through a distance equal to that between twoof the projections on the wheel. This rotation of the star wheel forcesanother projection thereon through the contracting radial guide H on thedisk H and as above stated, thereby brings the minute hand to theprecise angular position corresponding to the time indicated.

After the breaking of the circuit one end of the pin J 2 falls over thesecond shoulder A of the cam A the other end of the pin being still inthe slot C which is deep enough to permit of this movement and thepin J3 is at the same time moved further in the direction of its previousmotion to allow the end of the blade K to pass under the bent end or bowK (see Figs. 1 and 3) of the blade K. During the further rotation of thecam A the in J is gradually lifted and moves the pin 3 backward carryingthe blade K with it. Any contact made between the blades K K during thereturn movement of the pin J will beof no effect when the contactbetween the members E E E which constitute the other switch is broken.The parts are now in position to recommence the cycle of operationsduring the period of twenty four hours.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is1 In electrically synchronized time measuring instruments, thecombination with the clock-work mechanism, of a magnet, an armature, astud G" adapted to move with the said armature, a part adapted to rotatequickly and a contracting radial guide adapted to rotate with such partand to be traversed by ,the said stud, substantially as and for thepurpose set forth.

2. .In electrically synchronized time measuring instruments, thecombination with the clockwork mechanism, of a snail, means for rotatingthe said snail, a pivoted lever adapted to bear upon the said snail, amagnet, an armature carried by the said lever, a

sis n35 switch adapted to be closed by the said lever, f

a series of studs G adapted to be rotated by the said lever, a partadapted to rotate bear upon ture carrle our hour wheel, a pivoted leveradapted vto the said snail, a magnet, an armad by the said lever, aswitch adaptquickly, and a contracting radial guide ed to be closed bythe said lever, a series of 55 5 adapted to rotate with such part and tobe studs G adapted to be rotated by the said traversed by the saidstuds, substantially as lever, a contracting radial guide adapted to andfor the purpose set forth. rotate with the minute hand axle and to be 3.In electrically synchronized time meastraversed by the said studs, apivoted lever uring instruments the combination with the provided withtwo pins, a cam having two 60 clockwork mechanism, of a snail, adaptedto shoulders and adapted to rotate with the said be rotated by thetwenty four hour wheel of minute hand axle, acollar having a notch andsuch clockwork mechanism, a spring adapted adapted to rotate with thesaid twenty four I to rotate the said snail in advance of the said lhour wheel, and a switch adapted to be optwenty four hour wheel, apivoted lever, proerated by the said pin carrying lever, sub- 65 videdwith a projection, a spring adapted to stantially as and for the purposeset forth.

press the said lever upon the said snail, a 6. In electrically syncronized time measmagnet, an armature carried by the said leuringinstruments the combination with an ver, a switch adapted to be closedby the said electric generator, a circuit, a main switch, lever, a plateprovided with a series of studs and a minute hand axle, and the twentyfour 70 G, and adapted to be rotated by the projechour wheel of theclock mechanism, of a snail tion on the said lever, a contracting radialadapted to be rotated by the said twenty guide adapted to rotate withthe minute four hour wheel, a spring adapted to rotate hand of the saidclockwork mechanism, and the said snail in advance of the said twentytobe traversed by the said studs, substanfour hour wheel, a pivoted leverprovided 75 tially as and for the purpose set forth. with a projection,a spring adapted to press 4. In electrically synchronized time-measthesaid lever upon the said snail, a magnet, uring instruments, thecombination with the an armature carried by the said lever, a clockworkmechanism, of a snail adapted to switch adapted to be closed by the saidlever, be rotated by the 24 hour wheel of such a plate provided with aseries of studs G and 80 clockwork mechanism, a spring adapted toadapted to be rotated by the projection on rotate the said snail inadvance of the said 24 the said lever, a disk fitted to the minute hourWheel, means for retarding the snail so hand axle and provided with acontracting that its spring is placed under tension, a pivradial guideada ted to be traversed by the oted lever provided with a projection andenstuds on the sai plate, a pivoted lever pro- 85 gaging the snail, amagnet, an armature carvided with two pins, a cam having two shoulriedby the said lever, a switch adapted to be ders, fixed to the minute handaxle and closed by the said lever, means for releasing adapted to beborne upon by one of the said the retarding device of the snail when thepins, a collar fixed to the said twenty four lever closes the switch, aplate provided with hour wheel and having a notch adapted to 90 a seriesof studs (G) and adapted to be ro receive one of the said pins, and aswitch tated by the projection on the said lever, and adapted to beoperated by the said pin-cara contracting radial guide adapted to rotaterying lever, substantially as and for the purwith the minute hand of thesaid clockwork pose set forth. mechanism and to be traversed by the saidIn testimony whereof we have signed our 95 studs, substantially as andfor the purpose names to this specification in the presence of setforth. two subscribing witnesses.

5. In electrically synchronized time meas- BAHNE BONNIKSEN. uringinstruments the combination with the 1 FREDERICK AUGUSTUS CHANDLER.minute hand axle and the twenty four hour l Witnesses: wheel of theclockwork mechanism, of a snail DoUGLAs LEECHMAN,

adapted to be rotated by the said twenty E. HARKER.

